He gave her a wink and turned back to his desk.

‘Oh my God, you’re finally here!’ Liz flew out from behind her desk and threw herself at Zara.

Laughing, Zara dropped the bag she was carrying and hugged her friend back. ‘I am! And I’m so pleased to be here.’

Michael came over. ‘Good to see you, Zara. I hope you’re holding up,’ he said softly, taking her hand and squeezing it.

‘That’s kind of you, Michael. I’m okay.’ She glanced past him and saw a young woman she didn’t know at the next desk. She raised her eyebrows and nodded her head towards the newcomer. Michael turned around. ‘Claudia, come and meet Zara. She’s the one I’ve been telling you about.’

Zara moved forward and held out her hand. Now she was the professional, not the grieving sister.

‘Nice to meet you, Claudia. Zara Ellison. Look forward to working with you.’

‘I’ve heard a lot about you, Zara. Seems you’re respected far and wide.’

‘That’s a lovely thing to say, but I’m not sure if it’s true.’

‘Come on, you lot, are you coming to the meeting or not?’ Lachy stood in front of the meeting room, hands on hips. ‘Let’s go, people.’

They all filed in and Lachy began talking. ‘Okay, I need someone to take the stock-stealing story. We’ve had four reports of sheep and cattle theft and the Nationals’ Grant Tann is calling for the reinstatement of the stock squad.’

Zara put up her hand. ‘I can take that. His office is on my way home.’

‘Good. Michael, are you happy to go to Landmark and talk to head of livestock about the Dublin sale prices? I know we ran the sale results last week, but I think we need some background on why they’re so high and what the future for lamb is.’

‘Sure thing.’

‘Claudia, you can head to the wool stores this week and follow up on that story you did on the southern wool breeders’ group that are exporting wool into China without an agent.’

‘Okay.’

‘Liz, there’s a couple of late bull sales coming up in Meningie and Keith that you can get on the road and follow.’ He ticked off the items on his list, then sat back in his chair and looked at them. ‘Anyone got any stories they want to talk about?’

Zara put up her hand. ‘I’m still following the story of the drone in Barker a few weeks ago. I’ve got a contact inside Voices for Animals—the group behind the drone—and I’ve spoken to a few of the farmers around there to get their views. Hoping to have that written by next week.’

‘Okay, let me see it when you’re done. Anything else?’